ESSAY 2

This essay exposes concerns and possible responses to the increasingly problematic issue of reading and understanding the contemporary city. Its central aim is to hypothesise and sketch a set of methods which have been variously assembled during fieldwork. It is argued that they are informed by a specific set of "non-representational" theoretical contributions which strive lor the opening up of new questions and research fields, involving a few aspects which seem to worl< well as a background hum rather than precise taxonomies. This same experimentalism dominates the methodological choices of this work, resulting in an assemblage of tools and techniques. This approach appears to be valuable since, as we will see, it allows for a recognition and description of marginal, often unspoken contexts which can constitute a basis to build specific arguments.

ESSAY 3

Moving from the strongly phenomenological interest so far represented, this essay works tonds the unraveling of the diverse ontological conditions which affect the urban interstices of rcelona. It does so weaving together a series of contributions which highlight different and foi/radictoty positions: are these spaces abandoned? are they victims or emissaries of dom-inant power logics? are they spaces of resistance and opposition? It is argued here that such stances provide only partial insights, therefore a personal tentative contribution will be made in oider to attach another hue to these highly layered spaces which demand a decisively open approach to research.

ESSAY 4

If our aim, as architects, is to re-imagine our practice in the urban environment in a context of wo-politico-economical crisis, we firstly need to understand which mechanisms shape our pace, society and everydayness producing the phenomenological output that we have been able to observe. A rather structuralist leap will allow us to unravel the debates over neoliberal legulatory frameworks and their relationships with the urban environment, called into question lor being the global hegemonic system during the last three decades. Through the analysis of iheir socially regressive outputs, highlighting gentrification as the key issue, we will come to juxtapose the emerging alternatives that have been flourishing in response. Conclusions will underline the need to re-politicise, re-discuss and re-propose questions that have been erased from political debate.

ESSAY 5

iie last essay of this series resumes the architectural concerns exposed before and attempts a discussion towards their solution profiting from the aspects that have been emerging during the unraveling of this research work. It does so through the proposal of a number of conceptual transitions, which should be intended as a will to move the focus from one aspect to another, however not completely annihilating the first. These transitions are sorted in three fields which demand to be readjusted according to our aim: our goals, our techniques and our education.